How can I move files to new folders (not created yet) according to a regex pattern?-CodePudding

I'm on a Macbook and would like to use bash to accomplish task.

Let's say I have a list of files in one directory like:

item1_2352352352.jpg
item2_2352352352.jpg
item3_2352352352.jpg
item3_2352352352.jpg

How can I sort and move these files to new folders with a bash one-liner? If not bash, python is OK too.

I'd like the folders to be named as item1, item2 etc. (everything before the first underscore).

CodePudding user response：

That would do the trick:

for i in item*_*; do folder=${i%_*}; mkdir -p "$folder"; mv -n "$i" "$folder"; done

Explanation:

for i in item*_*; do          # for loop, loops over every file which fits the expression "item*_*" and puts current filename in $i
    folder=${i%_*}            # removes everything after a "_" from $i and saves the output to $folder
    mkdir -p "$folder"        # creates folder with content of $folder and without errors if directory exists (-p)
    mv -n "$i" "$folder"      # moves files without overwriting (-n) 
done